Nicole Reads A Lot

I have enjoyed Rachel Gibson’s work in the past (including previous books set in the Chinooks organization), but this novel didn’t do much for me. Autumn and Sam start out interestingly enough, and going into this book I was interested to see how they could get past the awful way their relationship began.

Obviously, Autum has an excellent reason for not trusting Sam. Marrying somebody on a whim, getting her pregnant, divorcing her during said pregnancy, and then not seeing your child until a DNA test has been done are all pretty hurtful things. Add being a somewhat slack parent over the ensuing five years, and you have a man who any woman would be wise to avoid. Especially that same woman who he hurt. When you do something awful to a person, she is totally within her rights to examine your motives for suddenly changing. Especially when a child is involved. Trust has to be earned, and Sam’s hurt feelings over Autumn trying to figure out whether to trust him isn’t a tragedy. It isn’t unfair. It’s the natural result of his previous behavior.

Of course Autumn is uncertain of how to behave with Sam! It’s great that he’s suddenly discovered how to behave more or less like a mature adult after nearly six of being in each others’ lives, but it may take her a little bit of time to, you know, believe it. Sam’s attitude is especially galling because his change doesn’t initially begin because of any conscious decision on his part; it is Autumn’s determination not to be angry with him anymore that facilitates his change in behavior.

Sam could have started to behave more like a responsible person at any point in the past, apologized for not being a better father, and made an effort with Conner. Instead he waits until Autumn begins to work through her anger to chage. Yay?  Sam’s transformation happens over a relatively short time, further complicating matters. I understand that romance books are not supposed to mirror reality, but I would have a hard time respecting any person who would so quickly welcome back into hers and her son’s life the man who so callously stomped on her heart.

It was nice that the characters from previous novels popped up from time to time, although Gibson not resolving some of those plot lines after mentioning them (did the breast reduction happen???) annoyed me. I also noticed the odd factual error (American Thanksgiving is the fourth, not the third, Thursday in November) that jumped out at me. Issues aside, this was an okay, quick read. Any Man of Mine is not a bad book at all, but the odd relationship dynamics in this novel kept me from enjoying it the way I did the previous books in the series. I didn’t love this contemporary as much as I wanted to, but even when not at her best, Rachel Gibson is still an entertaining writer.